Friday, July 17, 2009

Off Topic - Walter Cronkite (1916-2009)

Walter Cronkite was a journalist in the best sense. He was one of the last of the old guard of newsmen, the kind who wrote well and spoke well. There was no nonsense about him. He did not attempt to ingratiate himself with inane "happy talk" or overly dramatic showmanship. He kept his opinions to himself, until it really mattered, and then he gave us his most simple, and honest, assessment. He had courage. He had eloquence. He had class. His passing is worth noting not only for the value of his place in American journalism and popular culture, but mainly because there seem to be absolutely no broadcast "journalists" today who even try to emulate him. The courage, the class, and mostly, the eloquence, is gone. Delivering the news has become an obnoxious standup routine.

Listen to his voice on this audio excerpt in a thoughtful summation of an historic event, the enormity of which today would be lost in a sea of sophomoric acting for attention by "journalists" with eighth grade vocabularies performing on frenetic, circus-style techno studio sets. "Journalists" who no longer seem to have the dignity and the discipline of that old guard which would not dimish the importance of the day's events with shredded English and an appalling reliance on celebrity news. Listen to his voice, the style and the substance. It's all the razzle dazzle we really need.

4 comments:

Ah, those were different times. Tho I grew up in a "Huntley-Brinkley" home, I certainly know Cronkite's stature as a journalist; & you're right--TV news these days is an appaling show biz production. Excellent post.

Hi, John. Different times, indeed. We were predominantly a Huntley-Brinkley home as well, but channel surfed. During important events we'd scrounge up a spare black and white portable TV and watch more than one newscast at a time.

One of my mother's memories of the JFK assassanation reporting (one of many memories) is seeing that first Cronkite bulletin live while she was ironing. Almost as shocking as the news was seeing Mr. Cronkite in his shirtsleeves, near tears. Different times, indeed.

There will be many tributes to Mr. Cronkite and his age of broadcast news this weekend, but little done to emulate them, I'm afraid. All the tributes will ring a bit hollow when it's back to show biz on Monday.

Both he and my father gave me a passion for journalism. And Mr. Cronkite welcomed me in to teach at the school named after him.We met soon after I was hired at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications at ASU.

He said he had heard about me joining the staff, and was excited that I would be able to share my knowledge with the students. He said just teach them well, and I have taken that to heart.

Welcome, and thanks so much for sharing your connection with Mr. Cronkite. I would encourage all our readers to follow your link to the Perfect Moment Project blog, it's a great site of warmth and inspiration.

Bob the Bear - a picture book by my twin brother & Me

Read Arte Acher's Falling Circus

Recent Comments on Past Posts:

It Happened to Jane is special to my family. My mother was selected to play the wife of Aaron Caldwell, the Chester town selectman in the movie and has a speaking part about the parking meter revenues gathered from outside his general store in the town center. My older brother was one of the cub scouts delivering coal donated by town residents to fuel Old 97. We grew up in Deep River. A few years ago a niece provided every member of music family copies of It Happened to Jane on DVD. The Connecticut River valley was truly an idyllic spot for growing up in the mid-Twentieth Century!

Thank you, the Lux Theatre broadcast was absolutely marvelous, and far superior, as you have indicated, the film. I have always admired Dorothy McGuire, and she has it all over Jean Peters. This is not as clear cut a differential between Joseph Cotton and Dan Dailey, but at this point in their grand careers, I will take Dan. Again thank you.

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My wife and I go back two decades for our love of “Remember the Night” and its heartwarming story...P.S. As I type these words I am reminded of the inscription my wife had engraved inside the wedding ring I now wear… “Remember The Night.”

Beautiful piece, Jacqueline, about yet another movie from the Unjustly Forgotten file. I agree a video release is decades overdue, (What is wrong with Universal Home Video? You'd think the only movies they ever made were monsters and Abbott & Costello. And don't even get me started on the pre-'48 Paramounts they're sitting on.) I count myself lucky to have scored a decent 16mm print on eBay some years back; otherwise it would have been a good 40 years since I saw it.

I happened upon this piece and wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading it. Really a great appreciation of a wonderful movie. Raoul Walsh is one of my favorite directors and this is the first of his movies I ever remember seeing--it was on the big screen back in 1952 so I guess that dates me but a movie like this was ideal for my age, both for the adventure and romance.

I guess I'm going to be busy reading all your blogs that touch on events I'm familiar with.

Judgement At Nuremberg caught my attention as I had the privilege of working in it for some 60 days. But more so as the German WWII history always recall my own trials during the war.

I suppose we filmed this around 1959-1960 which is not that long after the ending of the war. Reconstruction in Europe was far from accomplished. For the audience in 1961 this history was still a part of everyone's life.

I was overwhelmed sitting in that set and listening to the greatest actors of that generation orate day after day... an endless live theater.